Save our schools! Parents to march in protest at funding crisis

Karen Dunn

Parents have sounded a rallying battle cry and joined the fight for fairer funding for the county’s schools.

With headteachers having to cut staff, resources and even parts of the curriculum due to a lack of money, parents have declared “enough is enough”.
Now mums, dads, nans, granddads, teachers and school staff are being invited to bring their banners and join a march through Worthing at the weekend to highlight just how bad the situation has become.
Meeting at Steyne Gardens on Sunday (April 30) for a 12.15pm start, the Anti-School Cuts Procession will make its way along Warwick Street, through the Arcade and west along Montague Street, finishing at 1.30pm.
Urging people to take part, a spokesman said: “It’s time to make some noise about the horrific level of cuts happening in our schools. Make some noise and tell Worthing what is happening to our schools!”
As well as the march, a public meeting has been called for the following Saturday (May 6) in the Richmond Rooms at The Assembly Hall, Stoke Abbott Road.
It will run from 2-4pm and guests are expected to include teachers and education campaigners.
The Worthing Lego Club, owned by Alan Whyte, will be on hand to entertain youngsters while parents attend the meeting.
All children are welcome, though Mr Whyte has asked that those under the age of four are not left without an adult.
More than 1,200 people have joined the Save our Schools West Sussex Facebook page over the past month.
They have thrown their support behind the Worth Less? campaign for fairer funding, which was launched by the county’s headteachers two years ago and has led to visits to Parliament and Downing Street as well as nationwide news coverage.
With the country’s schools expected to make cuts worth £3bn – 8 per cent per pupil – by 2020, and the new National Funding Formula failing to cover rising cost pressures such as pension and National Insurance increases, an already tough situation looks set to get much worse.
A spokesman for Save Our Schools said parents would be making their voices heard on the “chronic and unfair under-funding” which is crippling schools.
Describing budgets as being “stressed to breaking point”, she added: “At the school gates, parents are voicing worries that primary education has narrowed in favour of age-inappropriate English and maths, to the detriment of creativity, problem-solving and our children’s natural love of learning.”
For more details, log on to Facebook and search for Save our Schools West Sussex.

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